Pictures: The police investigation after Adam Nightingale was attacked outside the Mucky Duck

Pub-goer Matthew Horridge, of Eafield Road, Belfield, then gave police a false account of the incident which led to Ahmed initially being arrested on suspicion of murder.

Horrdige was jailed for 12 months after admitting perverting the course of justice.

Sentencing Gleeson, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, Judge David Stockdale said: “Adam Nightingale was not threatening you or offering any violence - on the contrary he was facing away from you, apparently trying to speak to a taxi driver.

“In all probability he quite literally wouldn’t have known what hit him. This was a cowardly assault on an entirely defenceless man.”